112- Covillc — Botanical Explorations of Thomas Nuttall. 



there was a ship at the leeward about to sail for Boston, and, taking pas- 

 sage in the Pilgrim, which was then at Monterey, he came slowly down, 

 visiting the intermediate ports and examining tlie trees, plants, earths, 

 birds, &c., and joined us at 8an Diego shortly before we sailed. The 

 second mate of the Pilgrim told me that they had got an old gentleman 

 on board who knew me and came from tlie college that I had been in. 

 He could not recollect his name, l)ut said lie was a ' sort of an oldish 

 man,' with white hair, and spent all his time in the bush and along the 

 beach, picking up flowers and shells and such truck, and had a dozen 

 boxes and barrels full of tliem. I thought over everybody who would be 

 likely to be there, but could fix upon no one, when, the next day, just as 

 we were about to shove off from the beach, he came down to the boat in 

 the rig I have described, with his shoes in his hand and his pockets full 

 of spechnens. I knew him at once, though I should not have been more 

 surprised to have seen the Old South steeple shoot up from the hide house. 

 He probably had no less difficulty in recognizing me. As we left home 

 about the same time, we had nothing to tell one another; and, owing to 

 our different situations on board [Dana had shipped as a common sailor, 

 in the forecastle], I saw' but little of him on the passage home. Some- 

 times, when I was at the wheel of a calm night, and the steering required 

 no attention, and the officer of the watch was forward, he would come 

 aft and hold a short yarn with me; but this was against the rules of the 

 ship, as is, in fact, all intercourse between passengers and the crew. I 

 was often amused to see the sailors puzzled to know what to make of him, 

 and to hear their conjectures about him and his business. They were as 

 much puzzled as our old sailmaker was with the captain's instruments in 

 the cabin. He .said there were three : the r/o-onometer, the c/uvnometer, 

 and </tenometer (chronometer, barometer, and thermometer). The Pil- 

 grim's crew christened Mr. N[uttall] "Old Curious," from his zeal for 

 curiosities, and some of them said that he was crazv, and that his friends 

 let him go about and anni.se himself in this way. Why else a rich man 

 (sailors call every man rich who does not work with his hands and 

 wears a long coat and cravat) should leave a Christian country, and come 

 to such a place as California, to pick up shells and stones, they could not 

 understand. One of them, however, an old salt who had seen something 

 more of the world ashore, set all to rights, as he thought : ' Oh, 'vast there ! 

 You don't know anything about them craft. I've seen them colleges, and 

 know the ropes. They keep all such things for curiosities, and study 'em, 

 and have men a' purpose to go and get 'em. This old chap knows what 

 he's about. He a'n't the child you take him for. He'll carry all these 

 things to the college, and if they are better than any that thej' have had 

 before, he'll be head of the college. Then, by-and-by, somel>ody else will 

 go after some more, and if they beat him, he'll have to go again, or else 

 give nj) his berth. That's the way they do it. This old covey knows the 

 ropes. He has worked a traverse over 'em, and come 'way out here, 

 where nobody's ever been afore, and where they'll never think of coming.' 

 This explanation satisfied Ja(!k ; and as it rai.sed Mr. Nuttall's credit for 



